We are rolling! Half of the 'Keep it Clean' series has been written, and I'm starting to generate more ideas for future posts. In addition, I spent the day in San Clemente working for an independent client. Hooray for job ventures! Let's hope business keeps looking up!
As I mentioned a few weeks ago, bloating your hard drive with unnecessary files is wasteful and inefficient. In addition to temp files and system logs, old program files and registry entries can quickly fill up your hard drive. I can't tell you how frustrating to hear the words, "Well, I don't know what that is. Someone installed it years ago and I never use it."
Here's a painfully simple tip: If you don't use it, get rid of it (and I'm pretty sure that this applies to more than just computers). Old programs, games, and personal files can take up gigabytes of space that could be used for something else- or just eliminated in order to maintain a smaller drive footprint. Windows itself (depending on which build you have installed) will only use about ten GBs of hard drive space.
Other programs, especially "crapware" (all that extra software that your computer brand puts on to the system post build, like games, photo editing tools and the ever-irritating HP Help Center), will do little more than take up space and be obnoxious. Crapware certainly earns its moniker- it's crap! 90 percent of crapware is brand-specific software that is already included in Windows in some fashion; most machines come with brand-specific system restore software, and laptops also come with battery management software; Windows is perfectly capable of handling these tasks. In addition, many digital accessories that make use of your desktop also come with unnecessary features; the Nikon digital camera software suite comes bundled with a wonderful program called “Nikon Transfer”, which is nothing more than a 200 MB copy-and-paste waste of space. Granted, some pre-included programs, like Acer's security features, aren't found in Windows and can be somewhat useful. As a rule, though, crapware can be uninstalled with no adverse effects to your operating system; they are not necessary to run Windows, meaning your computer won't fry if you get rid of them.
Like keeping your drive defragmented, keeping the footprint small is important in maintaing efficiency and longevity for your drive; the more information your computer has to sift through to find what it is looking for, the less optimally your system will run. Eliminating unnecessary programs and data is vital; conveniently, CCleaner has a nifty tool that will uninstall unwanted programs and disable unwanted startup entries that bog down your computer's boot times. Hooray for software plugs!
It's not a bad idea to go through and 'audit' your system every once in a while. Take some time and go through everything on your drive- and I mean everything. Open windows explorer and sift through your files, your music, your games and programs. If you use it regularly, keep it. If not, delete it. Be careful about what you delete, though- if you don't know what something is or what it does, it's probably best not to delete it. And of course- NEVER delete files in the C:\Windows folder- EVER! These files are essential; they are what Windows uses as an OS to run. Deleting these can and will detrimentally affect your system’s operation. Thankfully, later builds of Windows prevent you from causing any significant changes to the system folder, so there isn’t much to worry about. Still, unless you know exactly what you are doing, or are under the supervision of a trained professional (such as yours truly), it’s best that you avoid that area of your system.
Old games and programs that you don't use anymore can and should be safely deleted. The same goes for that old Stryper album that's collecting electromagnetic dust. Obviously, things like photographs and documents you are storing for historical or personal reasons should not be deleted. If you have data that's taking up space and you want/need it, good. That's what storage space is there for.
Getting rid of old, unused files will free up space on your drive and optimize your system's performance. Any user with a decent amount of common sense will know what to delete and what to leave alone. The best system audit is the one that doesn't happen- if you know exactly what is on your drive, and you know that every byte of data is essential, you're good to go.
'Keep it Small' is part three in a seven-part series discussing computer performance and maintenance.
